On October 9, Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Office of Sustainable Practices hosted SP's 4th Quarter Membership Meeting at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tennessee. The meeting provided an opportunity to further the objectives of SP's new Southern Supply Chain initiative, designed to support the automotive supply chain in the Southeast United States in advancing its environmental sustainability, waste minimization and business development goals.

Pictured: (L) Jan Compton, TDEC; (R) Ronnie Jones, Johnson Controls, Automotive Experience; 

Suppliers to the southern supply chain such as Johnson Controls Automotive Experience, Tennessee Recycling and Universal Fibers shared their experiences in advancing sustainable practices, and identified opportunities for further environmental collaboration.  Duke Energy, EFI Automotive, and Aevitas Specialty Services also shared the benefits of participating in E3 - Economy, Energy, Environment -  a coordinated federal and local technical assistance framework that helps communities to support manufacturing leadership through sustainability, and that is growing throughout the Southeast.   

Pictured:  (L) Amanda Kurzman, GM; (R) Ansir Junaid, Prime Woodcraft  

In addition, SP members reported on advancing SP project efforts and emerging opportunities for environmental collaboration such as a new SP Energy Efficiency Supply Chain Pilot Project; continuing efforts aimed at accelerating innovation through the supply chain; design phase screening guidance associated with ELV concerns; and, building OEM and supplier partnerships to develop solutions to reduce waste, promote reuse and maximize recycling.  Additional information, and presentations from the meeting are available on SP's Members Only website.

We are pleased to announce that Abednego Environmental Services has recently joined SP.  Abednego specializes in managing critical processes including air, water, and sludge systems in paint booth operations located in manufacturing plants across North America. 

Please join us in welcoming Abednego to SP.      

Jim Laney, DENSO International America, Inc. 

SP members Ford, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Honda Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company were recently named among the Thomson Reuters 2013 Top 100 Global Innovators. The program, an initiative of Thomson Reuters' IP Solutions business, honors the 100 corporations and institutions around the world that are at the heart of innovation as measured by a series of proprietary patent-related metrics. The full report is available at http://www.top100innovators.com.  

Ford Motor Company has selected Abednego Environmental to provide engineering, project management and installation services to convert the existing "sinking" detack sludge system to a "floating" detack system at it's Kansas City Truck assembly plant. Scope of work includes all system engineering, sluge pit modifications, equipment installation and construction/start-up services. More Information.      

California-based Biosynthetic Technologies is about to infuse some green into the world's motor oil and industrial lubricants industry. The company announced that, in partnership with Albemarle, operations of their demonstration production plant within Albemarle's existing Baton Rouge facility have commenced. Working with the USDA, Biosynthetic Technologies has developed a new, high performance, bio-based "drop-in" synthetic alternative to petroleum used in motor oils and industrial lubricants. More Information.      

Braskem is Brazil's best company in carbon management, with excellence in both performance and disclosure, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Braskem attained the highest score from among the 58 Brazilian companies that responded to the CDP Climate Change Report 2013. In the survey, Braskem achieved 99 on its carbon disclosure score and "Level A" on the carbon performance score. More Information.   

Braskem was included once again as a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index, the sustainability index for companies from emerging markets of the New York Stock Exchange. The portfolio, which was launched earlier this year, is composed of shares of 81 companies, of which only two are chemical producers. More Information.    

The National Safety Council (NSC) has recognized Chrysler Group's focus on improving safety in the workplace with more than 100 individual facility awards, an individual rising star award and two national corporate awards.  As a result of the summation of all awards received, Chrysler Group was honored with the NSC's Culture of Safety Award for having earned at least 100 workplace safety achievements. Additionally, the Company received the Corporate Occupational Excellence Achievement Award for having a lost-work-day incidence rate which is at least 50 percent lower than the average of other facilities within the Bureau of Labor Statistics grouping. More Information.  

Covanta announced a new 20-year agreement with New York City Department of Sanitation to transport and sustainably dispose of municipal solid waste ("MSW") delivered to a pair of marine transfer stations located in Queens and Manhattan. Covanta is the largest owner and operator of Energy-from-Waste ("EfW") facilities in North America and plans to utilize capacity at existing facilities to convert the City's MSW into clean energy. It is anticipated New York City will deliver approximately 800,000 tons of MSW per year which reflects the City's continued efforts to reduce waste generation and increase recycling. More Information.  

Covanta Energy's Energy-from-Waste (EfW or waste-to-energy) facilities offer a safe, sustainable and technologically advanced means of waste disposal that generates clean, renewable energy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and supports recycling through the recovery of metals. Using every day household trash as the primary fuel source, EfW facilities produce electricity for the communities in which they operate. Take a virtual tour and see how these facilities process waste in specially designed boilers to ensure complete combustion and use state-of-the-art pollution control equipment to scrub emissions. The result: electricity.

Global automotive supplier DENSO and Nagoya University have developed an in-vehicle battery-based energy management system (EMS), which uses forecasting models of household electricity demand and vehicle use to reduce electricity costs. The two organizations will start to evaluate the performance of the system in October this year under the Toyota City Low-carbon Society Verification Project, one of the Next-Generation Energy and Social System Demonstration Projects in Japan led by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).  More Information.  

Federal-Mogul Corporation and its Wagner® Brake brand are leading the automotive industry's rapid shift to environmentally-friendly low-copper brake pads. More than one million new 2014 vehicles from leading original equipment light vehicle manufacturers will be equipped with Federal-Mogul's Eco-Friction(TM) pads. In the aftermarket, Federal-Mogul recently introduced Wagner ThermoQuiet® CeramicNXT brake pads featuring the first full-line offering of 2021-compliant low-copper formulations.

General Motors achieved a leadership position for its climate change data submitted to CDP, the world's only global environmental disclosure system. GM earned a score of 100/A-, ranking among the top 10 percent of companies reporting in the CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report 2013. More Information.  

Nine more General Motors facilities have achieved the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR® voluntary Challenge for Industry, bringing the company's total to 63, more facilities than any organization worldwide.  The specific challenge - to cut energy intensity by 10 percent within five years - resulted in a collective avoidance of $162 million in energy costs and a reduction of 1.6 million metric tons of CO2 - equivalent to the electricity use of 244,000 homes. More Information.

For the third consecutive year, Honda was listed as one of only 60 companies in the CDP's "Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index" (CDLI), which features the world's most advanced companies in the area of disclosures related to global climate change. Honda was also named as one of only 56 companies in the "Carbon Performance Leadership Index" (CPLI), which features the world's most advanced companies in the area of actual performance in initiatives to address climate change. More Information. 

Johnson Controls announced that it has been selected for inclusion in the United Nations Global Compact 100 - a new global stock index that combines corporate sustainability and baseline financial performance. More Information. In addition, Johnson Controls announced its inclusion on both the World and North America Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for 2013. This is the ninth consecutive year Johnson Controls has been named to both DJSI indices. More Information.  

Johnson Controls was recognized by the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC) as a 2013 Corporation of the Year, Tier 1 - Manufacturing Category for the company's achievements in developing and working with diverse suppliers. This year marks the 14th time in the past 18 years that Johnson Controls has been honored with this award from the MMSDC. More Information.

Nissan Motor Company was recognized in the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) Global 500 Climate Change Report 2013 for its eco-friendly corporate policies and transparent information disclosure about its environmental performance. Nissan earned a spot among the top ten percent of companies that were listed in the report's Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) for its extensive information disclosure about its environmental performance and corporate governance practices. It was also ranked among the top performers in the Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) for its demonstrated actions to reduce CO2 emissions in its vehicle manufacturing processes. More Information. 

In Mexico, Nissan has expanded a green energy program so that 50 percent of the energy used by the Aguascalientes Vehicle Assembly Plant comes from renewable sources including wind power and landfill gas. For more than a year, the plant has used a wind farm in southern Mexico and methane from garbage at the city dump, which combined have cut the plant's utility costs by more than 10 percent. More Information.   

TestAmerica has announced the completion of a 66,000 square-foot facility expansion of its Sacramento, California laboratory. Staffed with more than 90 scientists and technicians, the expanded Sacramento facility now serves as TestAmerica's western Center of Excellence for air testing, complementing TestAmerica's industry leading air programs located in Knoxville, Tennessee and Burlington, Vermont. More Information.